a709: Group decries human rights situation despite Aristide's "nice speeches"

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Haiti: Group decries human rights situation despite
Aristide's "nice speeches"
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 9, 2002



Text of report by Haitian Metropole radio on 7
February

The National Coalition for Haitian Rights [NCHR]
denounces the deterioration of the country's human
rights situation since Aristide returned to power a
year ago. In a report made public this week, the NCHR
expresses alarm about the serious human rights
violations and the threats to the future of democracy
in Haiti, and wants a resolution of the crisis. Viles
Alizard of NCHR said the following:

[Alizard - recording, in Creole] The human rights
situation has deteriorated in the country and it is
very serious compared to 1994. Human rights have not
been respected despite all the nice speeches that
President Aristide often makes. We think that this is
extremely serious.

As regards the good working of the justice system, we
can say that is almost non-existent. The president
prefers to act as an observer of the judicial system
instead of seeing himself as a leader responsible for
ensuring the good working of that institution. This is
an extremely serious situation, and we can say that
Haiti abandoned the democracy track in the first year
of Aristide's presidency. Therefore, we think that it
is very important for a rescue operation to take place
in order to allow the country to return to the track
of democracy.

Source: Radio Metropole, Port-au-Prince, in French
1145 gmt 7 Feb 02

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.


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